Software platform technologies such as widgets and downloadable applications/applets provide packaging a service or content source for consumer electronics devices. A widget comprises a package of graphics and script code that may be overlaid on an electronic device display screen to provide information to the user. For example, a weather widget may present content overlaid on the main data such that the graphic for the current conditions and temperature are made available. Widgets have a simple lifecycle in that they are downloaded, displayed, minimized and stopped. The interaction of the widget with the underlying software platform is limited because the platform only enables the widget to fetch data from the network and display on the screen for user viewing.
Downloadable applications and applets, particularly such as those in Java, are similar to widgets, but provide more extensive Application Programming Interface (API) for interaction. Java applications are capable of providing complex animations as well as complex network protocols. However, as with widgets, Java applications have limited ability to interact with the underlying platform or other software components. In other applications, a search engine is used to obtain content for a particular topic (set of keywords) based on internet infrastructure.